


i've met my match

by aulesbian



Series: reluctance [1]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Cats, Domestic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-12
Updated: 2017-02-12
Packaged: 2018-09-23 17:30:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9668723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aulesbian/pseuds/aulesbian
Summary: “I won’t remember to feed it.” Andrew opened the door wider in a silent gesture.Come in and bring your dumb animal with you.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aisjustrunning](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aisjustrunning/gifts).



> written for ilovetextingandscones on tumblr for the aftg valentine's day exchange. this is part one of what i'm thinking will be a two part series. i was planning on uploading the whole thing at once, but some personal life stuff got in the way and i ended up not being able to finish, so i decided to just upload it in two parts instead of dropping out of the exchange altogether. so i hope this is okay! part two will feature more of andrew reluctantly falling in love with the cats as well as some nsfw content, so keep an eye out for that. i should have it posted by the end of next week. thanks for being patient!! hope you like part one!

“I don’t know what happened. It must have followed me.” 

 

Andrew shut the door on Neil’s face. He counted to ten in his head and then opened it again. Neil was still there, looking exasperated but also like he really couldn’t fault Andrew for reacting in that way. The cat was still there as well, curling around Neil’s ankles and making incessant purring sounds. Andrew stared at it for several long moments. He experimentally stuck his foot out to nudge at it. It hissed and pawed at his socked foot just hard enough for it to sting for a brief moment. Well. That was enough of that.

 

He finally glanced back up at Neil’s face. It was a nice face to look at most days, even without Neil pathetically trying to appear more angelic and pouty and appreciative than usual. Andrew knew Neil would not beg to keep the cat, would never ask him  _ please  _ for any reason, would probably not even attempt to change Andrew’s mind if Andrew put his foot firmly down. Which he would. He was going to. He should definitely-

 

“I won’t remember to feed it.” Andrew opened the door wider in a silent gesture.  _ Come in and bring your dumb animal with you _ . Neil grinned brightly, open, and Andrew had half a mind to slam the door in his face again. He would lock it this time, too.

 

“Yes you would,” Neil countered as he bent down to lift the animal and hold it to his chest. He grabbed the bags of groceries he’d set down in the hall and followed Andrew into the kitchen. “You have an eidetic memory.”

 

“Do I? I forgot.” 

 

“That’s cute,” Neil deadpanned. He started putting the groceries away while Andrew entered a staring contest with the nuisance still clutched against Neil’s chest. It had reddish-brown fur, nearly the same shade as Neil’s natural hair. It was also small, barely the right size to be considered an adult cat. But it had an old and extremely ugly face, and it made sense to Andrew why someone would abandon it; most people were shallow, they only wanted a pet if it was cute and nice to look at. They didn’t want something that was a little rougher around the edges than most, didn’t think they could handle it either. Andrew thought that was stupid. He also thought cats were stupid. This cat was definitely stupid, he decided, as he stared at its ugly face while it stared back.

 

He looked away after a few moments when he realized the thing would not be backing down anytime soon. He cleared his throat to get Neil’s attention.

 

“What?” Neil’s head was still in the fridge. Andrew rolled his eyes and sighed.

 

“You know it has to go to a vet, right?” At Neil’s blank stare, Andrew continued. “It could have diseases.”

 

Neil looked down at the cat. After a moment, he shrugged and met Andrew’s gaze again. “It looks fine to me.”

 

“We can’t live with a feral cat who may or may not be rabid.”

 

“It’s not…” Neil sighed. “What, do I have to make an appointment or do I just walk in?”

Andrew seriously wondered how Neil could have possibly made it to age twenty-four. Instead of voicing this, he shrugged, told Neil to figure it out himself, and left to finish the chapter of the book he was reading before Neil had showed up. He was just about to open the book when the door to the bedroom opened instead. The cat was still in Neil’s arms.

 

“This is familiar.” 

 

“I forgot the eggs,” Neil blurted out. Andrew blinked.

 

“Get them another time. You hardly eat eggs anyway.”

 

“Yeah, but I paid for them already. I just left them at the store. They were in a separate bag,” Neil elaborated as Andrew stared, unimpressed.

 

“Are you trying to leave me alone with your new charity case.” 

 

Neil frowned. “Twenty minutes, tops.”

 

Andrew frowned in return. He opened his book. “It’s not allowed on the bed with me. If it tries to leave through the window, I will let it.”

 

Neil cringed. “Don’t take the screen out of the window. Think of all the bugs.”

 

Andrew wanted to reply with  _ don’t tell me what to do _ but he’d already decided to be done talking for the time being. He made a show of getting comfortable on the bed with the book in his hands. He heard the click of the lock on the front door that signaled Neil leaving. Almost immediately, he heard the cat start to cry.

 

Well, maybe  _ cry  _ wasn’t the right word. Did cats cry? Whatever it was doing, it sounded ugly and annoying. He grabbed his noise cancellation headphones from the bedside table. That was better, until the crying animal jumped up onto the bed to land right by Andrew’s head. Andrew jumped as well and nearly threw the thing across the room for startling him like that. He decided to just drop it back onto the floor instead, hoping it would get the hint.

 

It did not get the hint, but it did decide to jump onto the foot of the bed this time, much farther away from Andrew. It curled up by his feet and stared at him.

 

Andrew stared back. “The window is right there,” he pointed. “Something much larger than you is probably very hungry out there.” The cat didn’t follow Andrew’s finger, just continued staring at his face. So he narrowed his eyes, lifting the book to cover his face entirely. 

 

 

Twenty minutes went by quickly, and Andrew could hear Neil’s presence in the apartment soon after he started a new chapter. Neil always made just a little too much noise when he first entered the apartment. Andrew knew it was for his benefit, so that he would know it was Neil and not an intruder, and so he wouldn’t be startled if the door to the bedroom suddenly opened. Most days he quietly appreciated it, but Neil had a way of loudly jangling his keys while hanging them up that drove Andrew absolutely crazy. He did it just then, and Andrew made a frustrated noise while closing his book and dropping it on the bedside table.

 

When he looked up again, Neil was standing in the doorway, a shit-eating grin on his annoyingly pretty face. 

 

“What.”

 

“I think he likes you.” Neil jerked his head towards the foot of the bed, where the cat was now completely sprawled across Andrew’s feet. Andrew stared at the dumb thing while it stared back. He lightly kicked it just to see what it would do. It hissed but stayed put. Andrew leaned back against the bedframe, content.

 

“Aw.”

 

“210%,” Andrew muttered, closing his eyes.

 

“Does the cat get a percentage now too?”

 

“212%.”


End file.
